The Image Seen by Nebuchadnezzar

Rembrandt · 1655
National Gallery of Art, Washington

This plate is one of four tiny plates Rembrandt etched for “Piedra gloriosa” (1655), a Spanish book about the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by his Amsterdam neighbour, the rabbi and printer Menasseh ben Israel. The book explained the dream, so Rembrandt wrote the names of kingdoms on the statue itself.

The statue stands on a plinth, hands on hips, with “Babel” on its head, “Graeci” on its belly and “Romani” on a leg. A great stone flies in from the right and strikes its foot.

From the text

A great statue with a head of gold and feet of iron and clay (Daniel 2:31–33)

A stone cut out without hands striking its feet (Daniel 2:34)

The artist’s own

Names of kingdoms written on the body, following Menasseh ben Israel’s book

The statue as a man in a short kilt, not shown in metals — the print is black and white

Details

On the head

The headband reads “Babel”.

On the belly

“Graeci” is written across the belly.

On a leg

“Romani” runs down one leg.

The stone

A great rock flies in and strikes the statue’s foot.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Rosenwald Collection, 1943.3.7208) · Etching, burin and drypoint · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

The verses

Dan 2:31–35As you, O king, were watching, a great statue appeared. A great and dazzling statue stood before you, and its form was awesome. The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze, its legs were iron, and its feet were part iron and part clay. As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them. Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.